Scammers are like vultures, feeding off tragedies such as the death of Amy Winehouse or the horrific events in Norway yesterday.

Scams like this normally lead you to online surveys, with the scammers earning themselves commission for each survey that victims complete. But first they trick you into sharing the link with your other Facebook friends.

If you got hit by this scam, make sure you have removed the entries from your news feed (to stop them being shared amongst your friends), marking them as spam if you like, and check your profile does not have any unwanted “Likes” under your “Likes and interests”.

If you use Facebook and want to get an early warning about the latest attacks, I strongly recommend you join the Sophos Facebook page where we have a thriving community of over 100,000 people.

In light of the bombing and shootings in Norway on Friday, it’s hard to believe that scammers would take advantage of such a tragic situation. But that’s just what’s happening on Facebook today, where a bogus post claims to link you to a video from an Oslo security camera showing the detonation of a car bomb near a Norwegian government building in which at least 10 people were killed.

The truth is, there was no security camera that captured such a video, at least as far as we know thus far. So if you see the following message on Facebook (pictured below): “[Video] OSLO Security Camera Captures Blast!”, don’t click on it, delete it from your Facebook feed, and report it to Facebook security. Help Net Security says the scam is infecting one user per second:

According to security firm Sophos, clicking on the link redirects victims off-site to a fake video player that mimics Facebook. They’re asked to take a survey, and then presented with an IQ test. After that, they’re asked to enter a mobile phone number that will charge the victim $2 per trivia question, four times per week. Ouch.

Facebook scams seem to be proliferating these days, preying on the curiosity or desires of unsuspecting victims. For instance, there was a Facebook Video Calling scam during a time of intense interest in the new feature two weeks ago, a particularly virulent scheme that lured users into clicking a link that spammed all their Facebook friends.

Patrik Runald, senior manager of security research at Websense told Help Net Security, “Criminals know how to take advantage of disasters and the hottest news items to get people to click on infected links. Tragedy is just one type of news that the bad guys use to exploit, compromise and infect your computer. Videos are an especially popular lure; we saw the same thing when Osama bin Laden died and when Casey Anthony was acquitted.

We’re always on the lookout for fakey Facebook behavior, so let us know if you see anything fishy. Is there no end to this needless duplicity? Is there any good news on this front? Although scams seem to be gaining popularity, spam decreased 82.22% over the past year.

In the same way that bar codes don’t have to be boring, quick response codes can also be creative. Thanks to a 30% tolerance in readability, you can have some real fun with clever designs. Besides looking good, this can also make them more successful.

“Designer QR codes are not only a way to make your 2D barcode stand out, but they also add a more human element to the otherwise cold and techie appearance,” says Patrick Donnelly, QR code designer and expert. “This could be the difference between someone scanning your code or not.”

Take a look through the image gallery for 15 brilliant designs created for a range of businesses from big names such as Disney, little names such as local restaurants and even conceptual ideas. Let us know in the comments if a clever design would make you more likely to scan a code. MORE

about.me

"Don't worry if humans are ignoring your talents, coz there in heaven god is ranking you"-DEADBJ

i am a beggar hood. . .

“child_hood goes on asking for dolls”
“teen_hood goes on asking for girls”
“youth_hood goes on asking for job”
“adult_hood goes on asking for money”
“old_hood goes on asking for life”
“life_hood goes on asking for RESPECT”
“so i am a beggar hood” -deadbj